IBM announces new Power9 processor based E950 E980 server systems

As a single server or node, the Power9 E950 supports up to four (4) CPU processor sockets each with multiple cores. An E980 system comprises up to four E950 based systems as a solution. The new E950 succeeds Power E850 and E850C, its machine type model number is 9040-MR9 that is a 4U single enclosure with two or four processor modules.

Power9 Processor image via IBM.com

IBM Power9 E950 and E980

As a refresher, leveraging IBMs proprietary processor chip technology called Power, which are used in their various mid-range and higher end server solutions.

The Power9 E950 and E980 systems support PowerVM virtualization, along with virtual machine (VM) mobility as well as optimization for OpenStack among other workloads.

What this all means

These new systems provide increase in not only compute, also memory as well as server I/O for storage and networking. With the addition of multiple PCIe Gen4 x16 card slots, more GPUs such as those from NVIDIA as well as fast Fibre Channel, SAS and NVMe based storage can be attached to these systems.

With a good number of x16 PCIe Gen4 slots, the E950 and E980 systems are capable of supporting more GPU offload cards such as those from NVIDIA, along with other ASIC or FPGA accelerator devices. In addition to compute offload, the x16 PCIe Gen4 slots enable server I/O cards to more storage devices including faster Fibre Channel, Ethernet, SAS as well as NVMe attachment.

Overall, IBM announces new Power9 processor based E950 E980 server systems is a good move for existing customers of AIX, Linux as well as with the E980 for i systems.

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Greg Schulz is founder of the Server and StorageIO (StorageIO) Group, an IT industry analyst and consultancy firm. Greg has worked with various server operating systems along with storage and networking software tools, hardware and services. Greg has worked as a programmer, systems administrator, disaster recovery consultant, and storage and capacity planner for various IT organizations. He has worked for various vendors before joining an industry analyst firm and later forming StorageIO.

In addition to his analyst and consulting research duties, Schulz has published over a thousand articles, tips, reports and white papers and is a sought after popular speaker at events around the world. Greg is also author of the books Resilient Storage Network (Elsevier) and The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC). His blog is at www.storageioblog.com and he can also be found on twitter @storageio.